Arrest made in illegal horse dumpings

Authorities investigating a series of illegal horse disposals used DNA evidence to find and arrest a man Friday in connection with two cases, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said.

Jason Anderson

Authorities investigating a series of illegal horse disposals used DNA evidence to find and arrest a man Friday in connection with two cases, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said.

Robert Deleon Decker, 27, was arrested about 1:30 p.m. on suspicion of illegal disposal of a carcass, said Deputy Les Garcia, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. Decker was released from the San Joaquin County Jail later in the day, authorities said.

The Sheriff's Office has investigated five reported cases of illegal carcass disposals since January, Garcia said.

Detectives submitted DNA taken from one of the dead horses to the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Forensics Laboratory, where lab technicians produced a match, officials said. No further information on the analysis was given.

On Jan. 16 in the 19900 block of North Atkins Road in Lodi, residents found a dead horse in a driveway with her hind legs tied. On April 2 near North Dry Creek and East Liberty roads in Galt, in Sacramento County, a dead gelding was found in a vineyard.

Neither of Decker's horses appeared to have been tortured or mistreated, authorities said, but others dumped in San Joaquin County in recent months were. A Clements rancher had two horses dumped on her property in just over two months earlier this year. One of the horses was emaciated and had its lips cut off, the rancher said. The other had its throat slit and its tail cut off.